Romanticism Phenomenon in Poetry - Essay Example

Critical Analysis Romanticism in poetry was an essentially masculine phenomenon in the early 19th century, and poets like Landen and Hermes represented the new wave of Victorian poetesses. Felicia Hermes’ poem titled “Properzia rossi” and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s poem titled “a history of the lyre” deal with different subjects; the former has a human subject while the latter has a female orphan as its subject, yet both poems reveal an emphasis on loneliness and affinity for death, which suggest the underlying feelings of oppression that women were experiencing during this period. The two poems however, appear to be combating the masculine context of romanticism in poetry by focusing upon feelings of pathos and oppression, which leads to the desire for death as the only means to gain peace and solace. Economic changes in the social and political landscape in the early 19th century contributed towards the development of romanticism in poetry as a distinctly masculine concept (Ross, 1990). In examining the impact of gendering and the sexual power in British poetry, Watkins (1998) has relied upon the work of three of the best known poets – Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats – to call “the logic of this masculinist poetic strategy” sadien which suggests that gender has been portrayed with severity in poems. The work of both the poets, Landen and Hemans, was developed in this environment where there was a distinct gender bias; as a result, while female poets struggled with the same issues and problems as the men poets, they found those problems “qualified and complicated by the growing prescriptiveness of gender ideology.”(Stephenson, 1992:1). In assessing the impact of the context within which the poetry of these women developed, Stephenson points out that in the case of Landen, this had an impact in two ways. First, the image of poetess is largely imposed upon her, which has a limiting rather than a liberating effect. Second, Landen along with Hermes, was writing poetry during a period of transition into a new era and her constructions of poetry are not those of a romantic visionary; rather they represent her as an example of a popular Victorian poetess. As Watkins (1998) suggests, these women poets who presented their work during the era of Romanticism, had to overcome this masculinist bias and was necessarily associated with oppression. The work of these poets thus reveals a greater focus on emotions as compared to logic, in explaining how there was a need for such poetry to explain the “shaping conditions of violence”.(Watkins, 1998). The poems of both the female writers are similar in that both of them demonstrate the same heavy reliance on emotion and pathos characteristic of the new era, in order to suggest the underlying oppression shaping the lives of women of the era, which persisted despite any progress they made. Hermes’ poem is about 16th century sculptor Rossi, who created some beautiful works but died penniless and completely alone. Rossi was a talented artist, who was in love with Anton Galeazzo Malvasia, but her love remained unrequited throughout her life; her suffering and longing for death is the subject of Hermes’ poem. Her accomplishment as a talented sculptor was phenomenal for the Victorian era where women were oppressed, yet she was alone and destitute, longing for the emptiness of death and still hoping that in death at least, the man she loved would acknowledge that love. In a somewhat similar vein, the loneliness and pathos of an orphan is also the subject of Landon’s poem. Eulalie, the subject of the poem, is an orphan who is as talented a player of the lyre as Hermes’ sculptor Rossi; yet her talent does not in any way, alleviate her loneliness. When the poetess shows her a picture of her old father, Eulalie sorrowfully notes that a dog is the old man’s only companion, indirectly reproaching the poetess for leaving her family member alone. Landon, the poetess, states: “It was both sad and strange, to see that fine mind waste itself away” (Landon, 95), while Hermes’ subject Rossi longs for “love’s kind words to woman” rather than “worthless fame” (Hermes,52); hence her life and accomplishments essentially appear to amount to nothing. Hermes’ poem therefore highlights the plight of the woman who has an unrequited love for a man who barely acknowledged her existence despite her fame as a sculptor and an artist. Hermes expresses the grief of the artist, who speaks of herself as being “deserted by the lonely sea” and “speak to him, lorn one, deeply, mournfully, of all my love and grief!”(Hermes, 51). The loneliness is also a repetitive theme in Landon’s poem; in fact, the loneliness itself is the inspiration for Eulalie the orphaned young woman who plays the lyre; “now you may gaze upon the loneliness which is her inspiration.” (Landon, 91). Both the protagonists of the poems seek the solace of death, but the reasons why they do so are different. Landon’s Eulalie’s music and words speak of the loneliness of solitude, so much so that she looks “to the grave as a home” (Landon 95). But Hermes’ Rossi is drawn to death as a means to finally gain the attention of the man she loved so futilely for so long. Rossi seeks to “leave enshrined something immortal of my heart and mind, that yet may speak to thee when I am gone.” (Hermes, 49). It may thus be concluded that both these poems represent the underlying oppression and suffering of women. The emotion expressed by Romantic poets such as Keats and Wordsworth is largely positive and oriented towards the masculine perception of romanticism. The work of these two female poetesses however, reveals a different face of romanticism, based upon the perceptions of women. This perspective suggests that romanticism as applied in the context of Victorian female poetesses cannot be viewed as separate and distinct from the oppression that they were subjected to. The pathos, grief and loneliness expressed in both these poems suggest that even fame cannot alleviate the need that the protagonists of these poems feel for love and affection; the lack of affection is the motivating factor that produces the loneliness in women and such loneliness is a direct consequence of the oppression that was meted out to women during the Victorian era. The element of oppression thus differentiates the poetry of the male Romantic poets of this era from those of female poets, of which the two poetesses discussed above are representatives. References: * Hemans, Felicia, 1828. “Properzia Rossi” (1793-1835) IN “Records of woman: With other poems”, Blackwood, pp 45-54; Retrieved December 10, 2010 from: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hemans/records/rossi.html *Landon, Letitis Elizabeth, “The venetian bracelet: the lost pliead: a history of the lyre and other poems”, Google ebooks; Retrieved December 10, 2010 from: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gBNESa2BaisC&printsec=frontcover&dq=landon+%22a+history+of+the+lyre%22&source=bl&ots=NtgiSlaPoW&sig=YF79x0n6xPP51l0a7Y9hQxV-IdM&hl=en&ei=shUCTfGjMoySswb7pbSGCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false * Stephenson, Glennis, 1992. “Letitia Landon and the Victorian improvisatrice: the construction of L.E.L.”, Victorian Poetry, 30(1): 1-17 *Ross, Marlon B, 1990. “Beyond the Fragmented Word: Keats at the Limits of Patrilineal Language”, IN Out of Bounds: Male Writers and Gender(ed) Criticism, ed. Laura Claridge and Elizabeth Langland, The University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 110-31 *Watkins, Daniel P, 1998. “Sexual power in British Romantic Poetry”, University Press of Florida. Read More